Les Yotes: Why the NHL Should Move the Coyotes to Quebec (But Won’t) by @ChrisRBarron

The experiment that is the Phoenix Coyotes has been an
unmitigated disaster.Despite Gary
Bettman and company’s desire to see hockey succeed in the 4+
million person Phoenix metro area, the truth is that it hasn't and it won’t.The unmitigated disaster I refer to has
nothing to do with the product the Coyotes put on the ice – indeed over the
last 3 complete seasons the Coyotes have tallied 107, 99 and 97 points and last
year made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals before losing to the
eventual Stanley Cup winning Los Angeles Kings.

The abject failure I am referring to has nothing to with
whether the Coyotes win or lose, and most damningly, no amount of winning can
fix it:the bottom line is that the vast
majority of those 4+ million people living in the Phoenix desert just don’t
care about hockey.

The Coyotes, previously known as the Winnipeg Jets, moved to
Phoenix in July of 1996.Just 13 years
later, massively in debt and losing huge sums of money, the Coyotes – under then
owner Jerry Moyes – filed for bankruptcy.Despite much more lucrative offers to buy the team and relocate them,
the NHL swooped in and purchased the Coyotes insuring they would remain in
Phoenix.

The Coyotes continue to be owned by the league, continue to
lose money, and continue to lack an owner willing to keep the franchise in
Phoenix (technically Glendale).Forbes values the Coyotes
at $134 million (next to last among NHL franchises) and they estimate that
the franchise has lost close to $100 million since 2007 (including losing over
$20 million last year alone – the year they made it to the conference finals).

Great seats still available at Jobing.com Arena.

It’s a shock anyone is interested in buying the Coyotes with
the intent of keeping them in the desert money pit that is Arizona, and after
the most recent attempted sale to Greg Jamison fell through, the NHL might
finally be forced to deal with reality and move the Coyotes to a place where hockey
is viable.Let’s be honest, just about
anywhere else that has been mentioned as a possibility (Seattle, KC, Greater
Toronto Area, Quebec City) is more viable than Phoenix.Hell, Saskatoon would be more viable for
hockey than Arizona.

While all of the potential landing spots for the Coyotes
would be an improvement over Phoenix – one is head and shoulders above all
other possibilities:Quebec City.

Last March, Quebec
City announced plans to build a $400 million, 18,000-seat, NHL ready arena
that will be ready in 2015.Quebec hopes
to lure an NHL franchise back to the city, which lost their beloved Nordiques
in 1995 when the franchise moved to Denver.

Clearly there is a hunger for hockey in Quebec City and in
2015 the city will have a state of the art NHL ready arena just begging for a
franchise.Sounds perfect, right?Of course it does, which is exactly why Gary
Bettman and company are likely NOT to move the struggling Coyotes to Quebec.

If Bettman is forced to give up his dreams of converting the
4 million plus in the Phoenix area in to loyal NHL consumers, don’t expect him
to trade that in for the 765,000 French-speaking Canadians in Quebec City.The tiny Canadian media market – that speaks
a different language – is a hard sell to big American sponsors and to NBC
Sports (the NHL’s television partner), or so at least Bettman and company
fears.

I am not saying that Seattle is a bad market for an NHL
franchise, but it isn’t as good a fit as Quebec City.Instead of constantly chasing these mythical big
markets with either no desire or little desire for an NHL franchise, Bettman
and company would be better served putting failing franchises like Phoenix in
places that almost guarantee success – like Quebec.

I know that the league doesn’t want hockey to be viewed as a
regional sport, but it is, and that’s ok.I would rather have 30 vibrant franchises playing in traditional hockey
markets, instead of a handful of teams eking out an existence on the margins,
losing tons of money, in non-traditional markets.

Stable teams that are making money are good for the league,
good for the players and good for the fans.Pack up le van, and let’s get Les Yotes north pronto!